Bouquet of Bullets
by Gramm485
Summary: An early morning job for Lady is a typical day for her. But an ordinary day of slaying turns into something more sinister. Something is drawing demons into the world. Now, it's up to her and her near endless arsenal of firepower to stop it.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Brrrring!_

Lady jolted in her sleep, then rolled over, burying her face deeper into her pillow. It was still dark out. At least, her room was. The blinds were pulled tightly shut, choking out any stray rays of early morning light that might disturb her sleep.

_Brrring!_

The phone on the cluttered nightstand seemed insistent on waking the slayer up. In addition to its crisp ringer, it vibrated against the table, which in turn, transferred to the bed. Lady rolled over again, throwing a vicious hand out, smashing nothing but air. She wanted it to go away, to let her sleep in peace. It rang a third time, and this time, she caught hold of the edge of the nightstand, knocking some of the clutter off of it. Balled up pieces of paper, a notebook, a spare magazine, and several bullets clattered to the floor, joining in the effort to wake her.

_Brrring!_

Finally, her hand reached its target: the hand piece. She lifted it, silencing the phone in the middle of one of its annoying chimes. Her eyes still closed, she first considered dropping it back down, but then brought it clumsily to her ear, letting it rest mostly on her pillow while lazily applying pressure.

"Mmm, what?" she half slurred into the phone. There was a pause on the other end, possibly the caller thinking they'd reached a wrong number.

"..._is this Miss Lady?_" asked a male voice, faint from the gap between her ear and the earpiece.

"Depends," she sighed sleepily. So help him if he was a telemarketer. She would find a way to trace the call, then beat the living shit out of him.

There was another pause. "_I have a job for you._"

That perked her interest. A little. Her pillow was still at the center of her attention, but she made the effort to hold the phone tighter to her ear.

"Yeah?"

"_Yes. I'm told you deal with...extermination._"

"You could say that. How bad?"

"_Pardon?_"

She was starting to wake up, despite her efforts to stay near the border of sleep. Plus, she was laying funny on the gun under her pillow, and it was putting a creak in her neck. "I said, how bad?" she repeated crossly.

Pause. "_Bad enough._"

_Damn it!_

"Fine. Address?"

"_6170 Fairmont._"

She did a very rough mental calculation. "2 hours. 2 k. In cash." She didn't bother saying goodbye, instead just plunked the hand piece noisily in the receiver. Lady sighed hard and dropped her head face first into her pillow. She very much wanted to go back to sleep, but a job was a job, and that meant money. Money was always good, and she had a rep to live up to.

She opened her eyes, her right blue and left brown blinking sleepily. She rose into a sitting position, this time outright groaning. The gray sheets fell away from her almost nude form. The AC was broken, the unit removed from the window sill, a large, fist shaped dent in the frame from when it had decided to conk out in the middle of summer. The room was thick with warmth, and even sleeping with just a pair of panties did nothing to cool her skin. The heat clouded her head and begged her to lie back down and pass out for a few more hours.

Instead, Lady forced herself to swing her legs out. From there, she granted herself a few minutes to sit and try to wake up a bit more. When she had reached the level in which she was sure she could make it to the bathroom without tripping over anything, she got up and crossed the room. On the way, she stabbed the power button on her stereo. Soft rock blared out a sensible volume as she stepped through the rest of the clutter of her messy residence; clothes, undergarments, several holsters, and other miscellaneous bits of clutter.

Lady cracked her neck as she entered the bathroom, releasing the stiffness that had built up during the night, then flipped the light on. As soon as she hit the hot water in the shower, all the sleepiness vanished. If it was one thing that woke her up, it was a shower. She kept it short; there was plenty she had to do before she left.

Once she toweled off, she grabbed the first article of clothing she spotted; a black button up blouse. She buttoned if halfway up, not bothering with a bra, then found a matching pair of shorts. A brief dig through a cluttered dresser unearthed her knee socks, which would make her knee-high combat boots closer to being comfortable. It took her a few minutes to lace said boots all the way up, until they sat tight on her calves.

Once satisfied with her attire, Lady quickly combed her short, black hair, then spiked it appropriately with a touch of gel. She washed her hands clean of the hair application, then slipped on a pair of her all purpose gloves. Whether it was riding or shooting, she always wore a pair. These were leather, ventilated and colored a deep cherry red.

She grabbed a pair of shades off the top of her dresser, flipped her stereo off, then headed down to the garage.

"Good morning," she muttered to her wall of weapons.

The north wall was pegged with various firearms, all organized to her liking. To the left hung handguns, ranging from the sexy little ones you could conceal anywhere, to the massive hand cannons that fired .50 cal slugs. Next to those sat her hand-held SMG's, then the few assault rifles and shotguns she rarely used. Strewn in boxes in shelves below were various hand grenades and incendiaries, as well as boxes of ammunition.

In the middle, separated from the rest was Kalina Ann, her custom rocket launcher. She'd cleaned it only the day before. The metal still glistened with oil, the well used bayonet that hung beneath it polished to almost a mirror finish.

Lady grabbed a few weapons and her ammo belt, which when fully loaded acted like a half mini-skirt. Among the weapons she took were Little Sis, her favorite .45 semi-auto with a lengthened frame, a tricked out Skorpion SMG with a hooked bayonet, and of course, Kalina Ann. It took her a full half an hour to load each weapon and her belt full of various types of ammunition. Kalina Ann had one rocket already primed inside, along with two spares in the shoulder mount.

She slipped Sis into the holster on her thigh, the Skorpion at the small of her back, and Kalina Ann across her back by its strap. It might be heavy to some, but Lady carried it easily. She mashed the door button on the way to her bike parked in the middle of the floor. As the door groaned up, she mounted it, kicked up the stand, and turned the key already sitting in the ignition.

She took her sunglasses from where she'd deposited them in the front pocket of her blouse. The world turned a shade of gold as the clear yellow lens' lowered over her odd colored eyes. The bike purred under her idly, then roared as she revved the engine once, then sped into the early gray morning.

* * *

He was waiting for when she pulled up on Fairmont. A middle aged suit, standing almost out of place on the sidewalk.

Fairmont was in the middle of the city, in the business district. High rise buildings and skyscrapers rose like gravestones into the gray sky. Not another soul was in sight; it was far to early in the morning, and even then, it was a seedy place to be.

Lady killed her bike in a spot on the curb, then shoved the kickstand out with her boot. She got her first good look at what had to be her client. Mid-forties, hair graying from stress, and a neat, pressed suit. Very official, very methodical; unfortunately, it was those kind that pissed her off.

Along with the cocky ones.

Already, he was giving her a bad vibe. He looked at her dubiously, as if he thought he'd called a hooker instead of a slayer. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd gotten those looks, and certainly not the last. When you showed up in a tight shirt and hotpants, peopled tended to stare.

_Though how many skanks carry around this much hardware?_

"You the guy who called?" she asked him.

"Yes. My name is Richard Caldwell. You must be Miss Lady."

"Lady will do just fine." She held out her hand. "Cash."

Caldwell gave her a sour look before digging into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a wad of banded bills, which he deposited in her hand. Lady flipped through a few of the bills, then stuck it in her blouse, wedging it between her body and her belt. It'd be safe there.

"So what's up?"

Caldwell nodded in the direction of the building across the street. It was one of the larger skyscrapers. "I own the Commerce Center. I came in to take care of some early business. When I arrived, the night staff was dead."

"And by dead...?"

"Slaughtered," he said stoically. Lady noted the lack of emotion in his voice. "I only saw a dozen bodies, but there will no doubt be more."

Lady folded her arms across her chest, the loose sleeve of her blouse fluttering lightly in an early breeze. She was intrigued. "Did you see it?"

Caldwell shook his head. "No, but I heard it. Whatever it looks like, it's probably not human."

"Hmm..." she thought aloud mentally running through a catalog of what she knew of. "Where exactly in the building?"

"The 71st floor. I was on my way to my office above the art gallery when I...stumbled upon the situation."

Lady nodded her head. She had a rough grasp of the situation. Somehow, a demon got into the building and killed a bunch of people. She didn't know how, but that didn't matter to her. All she had to do was kill it. By the sounds of it, it was going to be an in and out job. She might even be able to get some sleep afterwards.

"Alright. Two thousand is my price, which you've already paid," she informed him. "If shit happens, my price doubles."

"Should I be worrying about my insurance?" Caldwell was eying Kalina Ann's bayonet apprehensively. Lady patted the butt of it and shrugged.

"Hey, you want your pad back..."

"I don't suppose I have a choice in the matter?" Caldwell asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lady grinned. "Not really." She turned and began to walk across the street. "But don't worry," she added over her shoulder. "I'm a fair woman."

* * *

_Well, he was right about the slaughter part,_ Lady thought as she stepped over a man's body gutted up the middle. Whatever was supposed to be inside of him was now outside. She'd barely stepped off of the elevator when she had found the first body. Then she found another, then another. She counted 15 by the time she reached the art gallery. Mostly people in maintenance clothes and security guards.

The gallery was a long, boxy rectangle. Along the wall hung various tapestries and paintings, some oil, others watercolor, still others techniques Lady never even heard of. Spaced around the floor in glass containers were sculptures, abstract creations and formal busts, all of varying shapes and sizes. Other cases held medieval suits of armor, or ancient weapons.

_What place of business has an art gallery? Probably for tours or something...Although this building probably has other dedications._

Lady absently stepped over the corpse of a woman who had been cut cleanly in half. Though she was acting casual, it was her own way of being on high alert. The less she focused on the surroundings, the more likely she would see something out of the ordinary, at least that was her theory.

She had a look at the floor. It was polished hardwood, stained with pools of blood. But there was nothing in between the bodies; no marks, scratches, anything to indicate something otherworldly had gone nuts on a bunch of people. Lady squatted down, running a gloved hand across the smooth surface. There might have been nothing, but demons didn't just pop out of nowhere. No, there was always a reason.

While she was busy examining the floor, she didn't notice the black wisps behind her, nor the large, blood rusted scissors melting out from within a display case. Silently, they opened wider as she stood, resting just at shoulder level, ready to cut through her tender skin.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

In a blur of movement, Lady spun, yanking Little Sis out of her holster and leveling it, pulling the trigger once. She had just enough time to grin before the gun fired, the modified barrel belching out a torrent of exhaust into the gruesome mask that was an inch away from it.

The mask exploded into jagged fragments as the .45 slug passed through it. A very loud, wavery female voice shrieked after the gun's report. The rest of the demon's body, a black, shimmery cloak, quickly faded into nothing as the object anchoring it into existence was annihilated. Almost as fast as it happened, the scream stopped, the sound of spent brass spinning on the floor from the single round the only thing reaching Lady's ears.

She cocked her arm back, peering at the last remaining trails of what looked like black smoke. All that for a Sin? She sighed in disappointment and let her arm drop, the barrel of her gun still smoking quietly.

_Christ, and here I thought-_

-and suddenly threw herself backwards into a flip, just as something shot out of the ground beneath her, the ceiling above, and from behind a case to her left. The swish of blades nicked dangerously close to her body, metal on metal sounding like a large scissors or guillotine. Lady landed on her feet, cursing under her breath as Kalina Ann's weight almost toppled her over.

Three more Sins, two with scythes, the other with another over-sized pair of scissors. All three of them laughed in the same creepy female voice that had screamed in agony only seconds early.

Without hesitating, Lady pulled her SMG from her back with her left hand and opened fire. Her bullets tore chunks out of displays and broke the the glass of cases. The three demons scattered like bugs, then surged forward, melting through the various obstructions without hindrance. Lady dodged a swipe from a scythe, then was forced to roll out of the way as the one with the scissors lunged forward and tried to close the blades around her hips.

Coming out of her roll, she let Kalina Ann fall to the ground. Though she was used to the rocket launcher's weight, it was hampering her; it was too close to use a rocket launcher anyway. She hopped up onto a low case, firing with with both submachine gun and pistol. The demons presented a challenging target, even for her trained eyes and hands. The cloaks weren't even a part of their body. You could hit it as much as you liked, but nothing would happen. The masks they wore acted as their physical shell. Destroy the mask, you kill the demon. It didn't help that they outnumbered her, and that the masks were fairly small relative to the size of the actual demon, but Lady loved a challenge.

The three of them flitted around her again, like hawks circling prey. One stabbed forward with it's weapon, smashing the glass case as Lady leaped away. Another slashed, waiting for her to come close. She cartwheeled, able to make out the discolorations in the metal as it sang near her face; red rust mixed with blood and grime.

When she turned upright, she spun, sweeping her SMG up with a long swing of her arm. The gunfire cut through the cloak of one of the scythe wielders, then peppered the mask as she continued to swing through. The mask broke from top to bottom, sending the demon back to hell in two separate halves.

She clipped the Sin with the scissors, taking off a chunk of its mask at the chin. It screamed and flitted away, disappearing from her sight. Lady quickly forgot about it, as the remaining scythe wielder tried to take off her head with a wild slash. She ducked, and the blade cut through the display case behind her, showering her with glass. When she turned to fire at it, it darted back, behind a case. Her bullets struck the glass, but barely cracked it. Apparently, it was armored to protect the vase inside. And what a coincidence: Sis just ran out of ammo.

Lady mashed the magazine release on Sis, dropping the remaining clip of hollow points to the ground. Before it was halfway down, she reached into the fourth compartment of the second row on her belt, drawing a fresh mag from it and tossing it into the air. She slammed the butt of her gun on it, the clip sliding smoothly into the gun before the first hit the floor. Her finger released the slide, chambering the new round, then pulled the trigger.

The armor piercing round broke through the first wall of glass, the vase inside, then the second wall, then buried into the forehead of the Sin's mask. It had the smallest fraction in the world to pause in surprise, then explode as the bullet's ballistic charge detonated, vaporizing the demon's head in a dull but powerful explosion.

The last Sin hovered near the wall, snipping it's weapon with menace. It's green mask didn't have an expression for her, other than the fixed hatred etched on it. Therefore, Lady didn't know if it realized the critical error it just made: putting distance between them.

Kalina Ann lay at her feet. With one boot, she kicked it up into the air, then jumped backwards with a flip, holstering her guns and landing on a short case. As she caught the weapon, she crouched, sagging to her right calf as her left leg stretched out, acting as an anchor on the glass surface. Kalina Ann's butt tucked under her arm securely. The demon hovered at the far end of the gallery, unobstructed by the displays.

"Never like art, anyways."

She pulled the trigger. Kalina Ann screamed as it launched a rocket in a fury of fire and sound. It soared over the gallery, and struck the Sin in the middle of its cloak, missing the mask. But with a weapon like Kalina Ann, it didn't matter if Lady's aim was a bit off. The rocket exploded, taking the entire wall and all of its art with it, along with the Sin.

Lady felt a very pleasant wave of heat that made her clothes and hair flutter back. With her sunglasses, she didn't even have to squint, so she didn't miss a single sweet detail. The initial blast passed her, leaving what was left of the wall to catch in stubbles of fire and slowly burn. She rested her rocket launcher on her shoulder, then hopped down, the glass and rubble strewn floor crunching under the heavy treads of her boots.

"Hmmm..." she said to herself as she allowed her body to rest. She didn't even noticed that she'd started to sweat. Absently, she tugged the collar of her blouse, letting cooler air reach more of her glazed skin. Normally, she wouldn't have even taken the time to stop and relax, but something was bugging her.

_Why here of all places? Usually, someone has to summon these things. They don't just pop up when they feel like it._

There hadn't been any signs of a summoning ritual; those were usually very large, obvious, and dramatic. The majority of her jobs usually started out with one of those. Someone decided to take a risk and try and actually summon something, and she'd get a call.

All of the bodies she saw were fresh, and Caldwell, who owned the place, didn't report anything suspicious before; either that, or he was a liar, but Lady couldn't see him having anything to do with demons. So what else was there? The demons weren't summoned, so...

_They were attached or attracted to something._

Unfortunately, that could be anywhere in the building. Just because she found the Sins here didn't mean that they didn't wander down from six floors up or sixty below. She decided to have a quick look around the gallery, then leave. She'd ask Caldwell on the way out.

Everything was in shambles from the fight. Most of the display cases were shattered; few stood that weren't even cracked. Lines of bullet holes traced the walls and the hangings on them. Lady walked along the length of each row, searching for something that looked out of place, yet staying on guard. Nothing else attacked her, but all the same, she didn't want any surprises. It could be that there was something else waiting; it just witnessed its companions being slaughtered and was gathering its nerve to attack.

She was just about to head back to the elevators when she noticed it: a gap in a row of displays. The displays were a set of shelves, unprotected by glass, bearing several bullet holes. Various sculptures were on display as well as some forms of pottery that Lady thought looked atrocious. The gap in displays almost looked natural, blending in with the structure of the shelf. But the more she looked at it, the more it became set in stone: something was missing.

* * *

"You're gonna want to call the fire department," Lady said lightly as she strolled back outside, Kalina Ann once again strapped over her shoulder. After the heat of the battle inside, the air outside felt pleasantly cool against her moist skin.

Caldwell had been busy consulting a PDA. He shoved the stylus he'd been using to interact with the screen back into its place in the device, then gave her a dirty look as he tucked it into his jacket pocket.

"I take it that means you were successful in both terminating the problem and ruining a portion my building?"

Lady shrugged. "Can't blame a girl for having fun. But yeah, problem solved." Her tone grew more serious. "There were four of them, which leads to my next question. Where did they come from?"

This time it was Caldwell's turn to shrug. "Why would I know? You're the hunter, you tell me."

"I'm afraid I haven't read the book on summoning demons," she said flatly. "But I know the basics. They don't stop out of nowhere to make a house call unless there's a reason. There was something in that museum. Now it's gone. I want to know what."

"You expect me to hand over a manifest of what I collect?" he asked with a laugh.

Lady crossed her arms, unamused. "If that's what it takes, yes."

"I don't think so. I don't recall signing a contract, which means I don't have to do anything. You have your money, now you may go."

That did it. Lady _really_ did not like him. The guy was as cold as a fucking icicle, hardly reacted when she told him that his building was on fire except get pissy at her, then tried to jerk her around. _Nobody_ jerked her around. And she was still cranky from not getting a full night's sleep.

It also struck her odd that she was the first one he contacted. She had a little street cred, but jobs were too few and far between to be considered steady. Usually, she had to clean up after the local cops failed. This time, she was first at the scene. So did this guy have something to hide?

"A pack of demons just popped out of nowhere, killed a bunch of people in _your_ building, and you're willing to just wave it off?" she asked incredulously.

This time, Caldwell crossed his arms. "I will deal with the matter properly," he said coldly. "Now if you don't mind..."

She paused for a minute. "Last chance."

"Or what-"

-Lady grabbed him by the knot of his tie, then lashed out with a boot, kicking him in the shin, at the same time pulling him down. Caldwell collapsed with a grunt, his hands going up to her surprisingly iron grip. In her other hand, she made the action of drawing Sis slow and deliberate, then clicked the safety off.

"I don't make it a habit to hurt humans," Lady hissed. "But sometimes, they _really _piss me off. Now answer my damn question, or you're going to lose a knee cap." Although with the rounds Sis was loaded with, she might blow his leg off entirely.

Caldwell glared up through her narrowed eyes beyond her shades. He looked equally pissed, but all the same, Lady saw a bit of fear in his eyes mixed with surprise. He obviously hadn't expected her to actually attack him. Good, that meant that he just might start listening.

"I...I honestly don't know where all of it comes from!" he said quickly. "I just collect as a hobby. The Commerce Center just happens to act as my display gallery. But a new item came in a few weeks ago..."

"...and?"

"Apparently, I learned from the sellers that it was 'unique.'"

"Unique how, exactly?"

"I don't know!" Caldwell said exasperatedly. "I heard some rumor when I purchased it, that it was connected to some demonic myth or story. The sellers were legitimate, I've bought from them before, so how was I to know?"

Now she was getting somewhere. It sounded like whatever this art trinket was, it could have been the source of the demons. A string of bad luck just happened to bring it into circulation. What bothered her was that it was missing...

"What did it look like?" she asked, her voice losing it's violence, but maintaining authority. She had him beat.

Caldwell shrugged as best he could in his position and shook his head. "I don't remember. It could have been anything. I had a lot of things in there; to me it was just another piece. But since it sounds like you destroyed half the gallery, I won't know what's stolen and what's destroyed."

Lady sighed. Great. Something attracted those demons, and now it was gone, which meant that her business was going to go up. The situation wasn't turning out to be a good one. Some may consider her a bitch, but she still didn't like it when people died needlessly, especially due to a demon attack.

_Wait a minute...I'm missing something here..._

How many ways could a demon appear in the human world? Someone could summon one, a process that was long and drawn out. Scratch that. They could walk right in through a gate, but those gates were huge and ancient, and if one had opened, there would be a lot more shit going on. The Sins wouldn't have been attracted to something that wasn't there anymore so...

_...they were summoned by whatever was taken...by someone...and left to cover it up._

It was pure luck that Caldwell was probably crooked, and decided to fix the problem before calling the cops. Maybe he even planned on her destroying a bunch of evidence. It was even more luck that had her notice the missing item. Maybe that's what was intended all along: someone steals an artifact capable of summoning demons, summons a few to wreak havoc, and no one notices the item missing in the bloodbath to follow.

Or maybe she was reading to far into it. It was something to big to be ignored, even from her standpoint...which meant that this quick job she took early in the morning just turned into one big headache.

Lady realized she was still holding Caldwell by the knot of this tie. She let him go, then turned and walked to her bike. He growled irritatedly at being manhandled by a woman as he slumped to the ground, but said nothing else. In fact, she nearly forgot about him; she was already planning her next move. After all, he had been right; she did her job and had her cash. Who cared about him?

She had a theory, but not enough to take a course of action. She needed references, and for that, she needed to visit an old friend...if she could call him that. An acquaintance, maybe.

Acquaintances didn't piss her off as much as he did.

She started the engine on her bike, then peeled out onto the street. Instead of heading back to her place, she headed deeper into the city, into another seedy district as the morning sunlight grew brighter and brighter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you Alexis4 for beta reading!**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Lady pulled over to the curb in front of her destination, then straightened from her crouch over the bike, faintly feeling several of her vertebrae click back into place. All of this bike riding was going to make her an uncomfortable old woman someday. She closed her eyes and yawned, hard. Adrenaline crashes were always the worst when you weren't resting comfortably in a bed, which is exactly where she should have been. Not straddling a warm, uncomfortable motorcycle seat in a shitty part of town.

She rubbed her right blue eye beneath her glasses with a gloved finger, then looked to the dull, red flickering neon sign that stood above the entrance to the building she parked in front of.

_Devil May Cry_, the sign above the door read.

The D was shorting on and off rapidly, creating '_evil May Cry_' half the time. Lady let out a long sigh as she stared at it. At this point, she was wondering if why she tortured herself like this. She killed the purring bike, then flipped the kickstand out, letting it lean as she swung herself off. He better be there and awake. Otherwise, there would be hell to pay.

Hiking Kalina Ann further on her back, she briskly shoved the door. The tall, beaten entryway swung open without a problem, rattling on hinges loose from numerous kicks to the door. A waft of warm, stale air greeted her, smelling faintly of alcohol and smoke, mostly the kind that was loaded with cordite from spent bullets, as well as a host of other smells that Lady didn't care to recognize.

"Oh boy," said a lazy voice, dripping with sarcasm, "Here comes trouble..."

Dante was in his usual spot, despite the early hour: his desk, legs crossed and propped on the surface. His long flowing red leather coat was hanging from the tall backed chair he was slouched on. Maybe he'd been out doing some slaying as well? His odd colored guns, Ebony and Ivory were still in their holsters at his hips, strengthening that likelihood. In his hands was one of his magazines, but Lady couldn't make out the name of it from where she stood. It could have been _Two Handgun_, or maybe _Last Shot._ She really didn't care, as both of them were typical male oriented reads, and she didn't bother with that kind of crap.

"Good morning, Dante," she replied equally sarcastically as she plucked her shades off, hooking them on the open front of her blouse.

She took hold of Kalina Ann's strap and slung its weight off, propped the weapon against the wall bayonet up, then walked further into the room. The treads of her boots went from concrete to wood as the floor changed from the entryway to a warped wood paneling, then softened again as she stepped onto the rug that lay below Dante's desk. Apparently, the hunter had a sense of decoration, but not much of one, as the rug was a dirty green, in need of a serious cleaning.

If only his decoration extended to the rest of the room. Half of the wall behind his desk was covered in weapons, both swords and guns, something that Lady didn't mind. But the other half was covered in various trophies of slain demons, impaled upon swords or daggers. She'd seen far worse in some places, but still...not the ideal choice of decoration. The rest of the room looked like a typical seedy bar minus the bar; a pool table in one corner, a drum kit in the other, and a small, dusty refrigerator next to it.

"So, beautiful..." Dante drawled as he shut the magazine then tossed it on the desk. Lady saw that it was indeed a copy of _Two Handgun_, the cover girl wearing hardly anything as she brandished some massive pistol. "...what can I do for you on this fine morning? Here for money? Or do you want me to go beat someone up again?"

"Information," Lady said, cutting to the chase. She leaned forward absently on his desk, drumming her fingers on the wood, then cocked her head. "How's business been?" she asked sweetly.

Dante gave a chuckle, then raised his hands behind his head, reclining further in his chair. "Been fine, can't complain. It pays the bills. Is there a reason why you want to know?"

Lady left the front of his desk, instead venturing to the liquor cabinet in the corner of the room. "Not really, just curious, I guess," she said vaguely, then peered inside. Unfortunately, Dante didn't stock her brand of whiskey. A shot of something would've been just the thing to put her in a better mood. When she turned to ask her next question, she noticed a flash of blond and black she hadn't when she entered.

Trish was sprawled on the beaten red leather sofa on the other side of the room, casually reading another magazine. Her legs were raised above her like a child as she lay on her stomach, lazily turning a few pages, and every so often taking the lollipop she was happily sucking on out of her mouth, only to place it back in and repeat the process. Like always, she was wearing black leather, the usual very tight and little of it.

She hooked one long strand of the silky golden locks that flowed down her back behind her ear, then casually shot a glance at Lady. Uninterested in what she saw, she turned back to her magazine and candy.

"What can you tell me about Devil Arms?" Lady asked, ignoring Trish and returning to the front Dante's desk.

"Not too much..." he replied as he scratched the stubble along his chin. That was another thing. She'd never seen him with a beard, and never really clean shaven.

_Must just miss it every time_.

"...they're weapons, made from the body and soul of a demon," he continued.

"I get that much, and I really don't care about the process of it," she said, "But why don't all demons become weapons when you kill them?"

Dante shrugged. "Dunno. It must have something to do with their strength. Only the big nasties tend to do it. Hell, sometimes they _want_ you to do it after you've kicked the crap outta them."

"And it's not like this is something new?" Lady questioned just to be sure. "This has been going on for ages, right?"

"As far as I know. Every so often, you'll come across one that's been lying dormant. Those can be a bit nasty, since they usually try to possess the user, or try to kill them. Heh, did I ever tell you the time this sword-"

"-yeah, yeah," Lady interrupted with a wave of her hand. "Right through your chest. So it's possible that there could be a lot more Devil Arms that were created years ago, laying around, waiting to become active."

"Yep. No way of knowing how many and where though. You just have to wait until someone is dumb enough to pick one up."

"Unfortunately," she said, "That might be the case right now. I had a shootout with a few Sins this morning-"

"-been a while since I took on some of those-"

"-and the guy who called was a total prick, but that's beside the point. It turns out that he collected art, and recently acquired what he called a 'unique piece'. I noticed something was missing after the fight, and there wasn't any other reason for those demons to be there."

"A hunch?" Dante grinned.

Lady rolled her eyes; this was why she hated coming here. He was playing with her, watching her squirm. He might not look it, but he could be pretty perceptive. He knew that she was concerned for human life, even though she didn't outright admit it. Otherwise, she wouldn't be standing there right now. More than once he poked fun at there being an actual lady underneath her bitch exterior. Dante apparently derived a bit of pleasure from teasing her about that. She didn't think it to be a weakness, just...something that could be a pain in the ass sometime.

That, and she kept noticing him checking her out. Every so often, his eyes would drift to her rack or ass, and he made no effort to hide it either. Just another one of those things that happened whenever she visited _Devil May Cry_. It probably stemmed from her sense of fashion, and the bad habit of leaning on things she'd developed over the years. She wondered briefly if Trish got the same treatment, or did anything about it if she did.

"Yeah, it's a hunch," Lady said. "And if I'm not mistaken, my last one was dead on..."

She was referring to the Order of the Sword. A few months back, they had been interfering with her jobs, almost to the point of shooting back at her. Something just didn't sit right with her about a group that wanted to be involved with demons that badly. Dante owed her a few favors, so she managed to get him to look into it and take care of the problem. Sure enough, the whole cult had been corrupt, filled to the core with evil, complete with plans for world domination. As usual, Dante made a mess of things, but got the job done in the end.

"...I'm thinking it's a Devil Arm," she concluded. "One that can summon demons."

"I can see where this is going," Dante said, removing his hands from behind his head and vigorously scratching his stubble. "But as you've so kindly reminded me, I _did _take care of that problem for you, so..."

Lady smirked. "I never said I wanted you to do anything. All I came here for was a little chat. I'll take care of it myself." She straightened from her lean, her look becoming more serious. "But it sounds like things might get busy soon. I'm not interested in a petty competition this time around, Dante. You see it, take it out."

The hunter shrugged. "Sure."

"Alright then," Lady said, then placed her sunglasses back on, pushing them to the bridge of her nose with a finger. "I'll see you around."

She turned on the ball of her foot, noticing that Trish had silently changed positions on the couch, now sprawled on her back, holding the magazine above her. One leg, clad in a long, black heeled boot lazily swung back and forth, as if it was keeping time to the jukebox, which was unusually silent from it's normal tunes. Lady received another glance from her piercing blue eyes, but that was all.

Once again choosing to respond in a similar fashion, Lady collected Kalina Ann at the door, then walked out to her bike. It was still early in the morning. She could still get home at a reasonable hour, and cleaning her weapons wouldn't take long. With any luck, she could catch a few more winks of sleep.


End file.
